Part 2 - The Real Work Begins
The poor road conditions on the way to the work site in Santa Cecilia were made painfully clear to me, as the thin seat cushioning on the bus did little to alleviate the soreness from the previous day’s adventure. I will never again take for granted the paved roads of Los Angeles, potholes and all. It truly is a miracle of urban engineering, when you consider how many millions of cars travel the streets every day.
We made a quick stop in the town of La Cruz to pick up some supplies from a local supermarket. While waiting for the last of the stragglers to check out, I wandered around the bus and noticed the tire pressure seemed a little low on the front tire. I wondered if this was common practice in the area to help navigate the unpaved streets.
A few kilometers and a blown out tire later, I was forced to conclude this was NOT the case. Our team abandoned ship and pondered our next course of action. By some stroke of luck, a tractor happened to be passing by at that very moment and offered to pull the bus out. So while Mauricio took care of the vehicle, we loaded up our water bottles and embarked on “Adventure Day: The Encore,” hiking our way to the work site.
It was actually a pretty pleasant walk, and despite the setback we arrived in high spirits, ready to work. After all, this was what we had signed up for! Most of us paired off into teams of two and picked up picks and shovels for the first task: digging square holes. Once they were the right depth and width, a support beam would be inserted in and surrounded by cement.
Filomena and I partnered up and tackled our first hole. We were stationed in-between Cody and Porfilia, one of the moms who would receive a house. As part of the agreement with Habitat, each family puts 300 hours of work into the project. And boy did she put in the work! She and Cody managed to dig over 3 holes each. Filomena and I worked our way through 2 and a half; not too shabby considering we sit in chairs all day at Sony. But we couldn’t help but admire the dedication and effort that Porfilia showed all of us. Our team of volunteers had its share of complaints about the heat, wishes for power tools, and groans over unused muscles, while she worked quietly beside us. Now and then a couple of the younger girls dug holes too. And little Jackson, only 5 years old, would carry our water bottles to us and grin when we gave him hi-5s or fist bumps.
We found ourselves becoming entwined into a whole unified community, with each man, woman and child doing their part to achieve the vision we saw ahead of us. I looked down the hill towards one of the houses that was much farther along in production, and imagined the neighborhood complete.
